1.CUT! The Federal Government in general needs to get smaller. The closer to home money is spent the cheaper the project is. Once the Feds get involved their inane rules cost the people money.Cut the overall size of Government (and not 10% either). I mean they need to get out of any function that every state has. Education, OSHA, EPA and more. The overall tax burden on society needs to go down. Everything we buy has taxes built-in. Our Government will tell you these are Corporate taxes. No Company ever pays taxes. We do. It is built into everything we buy.

2. SPEND WISELY! The states and municipalities need to control spending and stop depending on growth income. Growth in townships and even this state and Country is finite. It is all good while the growth is happening in a town but what happens when that income goes away.

3. BE REALISTIC! We the people need to stop the compartmentalized feelings toward our legislatures. There is a body of work from pollsters showing how unhappy we are with Congress and even the State legislatures. But when asked if we like our representatives we say, yes, they are doing a great job. We must elect principled individuals and not people picked for us. Get out and meet the people running for office. Look them in the eye and ask them a question. Did you get the answer you were hoping for? A good example was John Adler who never met a question he could not answer in a thousand words or more. For this people said he was intelligent. NO he was vamping hoping to say something that would make you nod your head because once he did you would forget the rest of the rambling. That is not smart that is dishonest.

4. TIGHTEN YOUR BELT! Be aware that times are changing and with that our prospect of growth is diminished until we can turn the corner. We all want our piece of the pie. Well folks the pie is a heck of a lot smaller and your slice is overlapping mine now. We all want good salaries and health care. But that will never happen when Government has more employees than the private sector. We need taxpayers not tax takers. That will get us moving in the right direction.

5. EDUCATE YOURSELF AND BE ACTIVE! Become aware of what your lawmakers are doing. Google the house and senate or your state legislature. Read the insane proposals some of these people make. Oh and one more thing. Yes Earmarks are a SMALL part of the overall budget and they are work that does not exist yet. So cutting them should be easy. So look at the hue and cry over stopping them. If this is hard for Congress how hard will it be to cut the federal or state governments? You need to reach out to your representatives and tell them to stop the madness and take their collective hands out of our pockets.